WASHINGTON -- Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby provided the following readout:

Secretary of Defense Lloyd. J. Austin III spoke with Republic of Korea (ROK) Minister of National Defense Suh Wook and Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi today to reaffirm the importance of trilateral security cooperation in addressing global security challenges and threats posed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) weapons of mass destruction and missile programs.

The leaders emphasized that the DPRK’s ballistic missile launches are destabilizing to regional security and a clear violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions. They committed to conduct an in-person Trilateral Defense Ministerial on a mutually determined future date, to close trilateral coordination in the face of the DPRK’s missile launches, and to continue efforts to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. commitment to the defense of Japan and the ROK is ironclad.